CBEI

Competency Model and Career Map

CBEI Competency Model

The Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Program has developed guidelines to improve the quality and consistency of commercial building workforce credentials for four key energy-related jobs: energy auditor, commissioning professional, operations professional, and energy manager. The industry needed documented career and development pathways and a clear representation of the competencies required in each role in order to accelerate the movement of competent people into these jobs. CBEI developed the Advanced Career Commercial Buildings Workforce Competency Model and Career Map. The competency model documents the technical skills and competencies required for workplace success and provides a resource for the development of curriculum, certifications, and the tests that assess work-related competencies. The competency model has been available to users since May 2015 on the Competency Model Clearinghouse website www.careeronestop.org/competencymodel/, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The career map depicts clear workforce development pathways and career progressions into the advanced commercial buildings workforce. The model and map have been pushed out through multiple professional associations. The Career Map is being maintained and updated by the Facility Engineering Associates (FEA), facilitiescareermap.feapc.com.

Broker Training

Properly evaluating a building’s energy performance is regarded as a critical element to a healthy marketplace for driving commercial building energy efficiency. Commercial brokers who handle the sale of these buildings are well positioned to represent these elements for their clients. CBEI’s Commercial Broker Training program aims to increase commercial brokers’ understanding of energy efficiency measures to enable them to better facilitate transactions for both the owners and tenant.

Where previous education efforts have been hampered by the difficulty in reaching brokers and earning approval from state real estate commissions, CBEI has succeeded in gaining significant traction in providing this energy efficiency education to brokers.

The project team developed the training course, established continuing education credit for that course, and conducted the training in multiple states. CBEI is expanding the Broker Training program to a national audience both through continuing education credit offerings and through partnerships with national players to help further the program’s reach. CBEI has offered nine trainings in five states and Washington, D.C. and has trained over 250 brokers. The training program was designed to be sustained through partnerships. Training partners in three to five states have already committed to continue to offer the course.

Building Operator Training

Building operators receive hands-on training to better assess building performance and opportunities for energy savings.

A capable workforce of building operators literate in energy efficiency concepts can identify and help to implement low- or even no-cost energy saving strategies. Further, operators are well-positioned to advise owners about current building systems inefficiencies, which when addressed and resolved through energy retrofits can yield high returns on investment. CBEI enhanced and supported national deployment of two operator-focused training courses.

CBEI offered the Building Operator Certification program in 2012 to train operators on building systems maintenance and equipment troubleshooting. The program continues to be offered by Pennsylvania College of Technology, which is part of the Penn State system. The course is divided into two levels with the first providing a foundational understanding of building energy uses and energy accounting practices, while the second level focuses on preventative measures, electrical system diagnostics, HVAC troubleshooting, and control and optimization of building automation systems.

Working in conjunction with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), and APPA: Leadership in Educational Facilities, CBEI enhancement of an existing course aimed at building operators called Building Re-Tuning (BRT). BRT is the process of bringing a building back to its optimal performance. CBEI enhanced the curriculum with additional content and designed it to be a train-the-trainer program. CBEI piloted the BRT train-the-trainer course to several dozen students representing over 100 buildings in three BOMA markets and national gatherings of BOMA and APPA trainers. The piloting of this new approach helped set the stage for BOMA and APPA to begin national deployment of the program in 2016.

Benchmarking Proficiency

With the growth of building energy benchmarking and disclosure laws adopted throughout the U.S., concerns have risen about the accuracy of the data that is being collected. Inaccurate data threatens the credibility of benchmarking programs. In response to this need, CBEI worked with the Natural Resource Defense Council and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to design, test and deploy the National Benchmarking Proficiency Certificate and Training Program. Through CBEI’s leadership and support, the certificate program was successfully deployed and is being adopted as a means for ensuring accurate data collection.

New York City incorporated the credential into its training program to help address its data quality control issues. Salt Lake City Community College integrated the training program into its curriculum as of mid-2015, as part of their benchmarking workforce training. CBEI supported its training program’s national deployment in cooperation with Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and EPA, while also providing necessary upgrades in conjunction with updates to Portfolio Manager and user feedback. Working to ensure the long-term viability of the training program, CBEI also developed a business plan and revenue model for maintaining and sustaining the certificate program.

Through a collaboration between CBEI and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, building energy efficiency training is being provided across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In addition to providing BRT training at the municipal, school district, and state level, the Department of Environmental Protection funded the development of a college course: Leadership in Building Energy Efficiency. This course includes CBEI-developed training in BRT, Asset Score Tool and Benchmarking and is currently offered by Penn State and plans are underway to expand to other higher education institutions in Pennsylvania.

Asset Score Training

CBEI advanced the market penetration of the Department of Energy’s Asset Score Tool (AST)by creating a new, certificate of proficiency course that can be readily integrated with other building energy assessment education and training programs. Leveraging prior experience in the development of the Certificate of Proficiency in Benchmarking program, CBEI conducted a needs assessment to
build upon and sharpen initially identified education and training needs. Based on this assessment, a modular curriculum plan was created to address critical needs as defined by the experience of AST users.